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Highs and Lows for Milwaukee Yamaha at Oulton Park

The Milwaukee Yamaha team ended the seventh round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship narrowly missing out on another podium finish for James Ellison following his sensational victory in the opening race of the weekend at Oulton Park.

Ellison had won the first race of the triple-header event in style and was confident ahead of race two as he continues his bid to secure a Showdown position. Ellison had been in the leading group in the second race as he pushed up to second place but on the fourteenth lap a move by Alex Lowes pushed him wide at Island, causing him to run off the track and subsequently crashing out of a potential podium position.

In the final race of the weekend Ellison was determined to make amends for the disappointment of race two and he was once again in the leading group of riders in contention for the win. Ellison was fighting hard but was forced to finish in fourth, but still holds fourth position in the overall standings with four races remaining ahead of the Showdown.

Australian Josh Waters came close to the top ten in race two in eleventh place, but could only score one point for fifteenth place in race three.

Ellison said: “I am disappointed with the crash in race two, but feel I rode really strongly and I have to look at the positives in that. We had a win and a fourth place this weekend so we still kept fourth in the overall standings with two race weekends left before the Showdown. The team gave me a really good bike again this weekend and I enjoyed every session and lap of the race on the Milwaukee Yamaha. We proved again we can run at the front and am confident we will be in the title fight.”

Waters said: “It was another two tough races for us today and we tried to make some changes but although we felt like we made improvements, in the races I didn’t get great starts and that made it harder in the races. We will have to look at what we can do now ready for Cadwell Park.”

Team co-ordinator Mick Shanley concluded: “It has been an up and down weekend and again we have struggled to get a solid weekend under our belts. In the first race James rode superbly and it was a really deserved win but then we tried to keep the ball rolling today and an over ambitious move from Alex Lowes left him nowhere to go but off the track. He bounced back with a pretty good race three to finish fourth and again we showed we have the pace to run at the front but we still have a few things still to work on for the Showdown. With Josh we have tried some new settings this weekend but he is still struggling so we need to keep digging and see what we can do for Cadwell Park.”